In this episode of Ignition presented by Tire Rack (http://www.tirerack.com), we explore whether adding two turbos to the base Porsche 911 was a good idea. Porsche inadvertently created a problem four decades ago with the original 911 Turbo. It was so fast and so unique that its name became a legend. Ever since, “The Turbo” refers to just one car—the blown Porsche 911. Now, for the first time, the base 911 Carrera has turbos, too. Like them or not, turbochargers fundamentally change the way an engine delivers output. All turbocharged engines have lag; the question is whether the boost is managed well enough to not interfere with the driver’s commands. And, in this case, the bigger question is: Does the new downsized, turbocharged engine alter the 911 experience? MOTOR TREND Senior Features Editor Jason Cammisa secured a base Carrera to find out and spec’d it without performance-enhancing options—no rear-wheel steering or active antiroll bars to compensate for the rear-mounted engine’s weight, no big carbon-ceramic brakes to decrease unsprung weight, and no PDK dual-clutch automatic to help the 0-60 run. Then, he turned hall-of-fame race car driver Randy Pobst loose in the 911 to see how it would do around the Thunderhill Raceway Park 2-mile circuit. Without all the gizmos, can a base 911 keep up with the overachieving BMW M2 around a track? You’ll have to watch this episode to find out.

Ignition appears every other Monday on the Motor Trend Youtube channel. https://www.youtube.com/motortrend

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50 Comments

this is sooo much better then the grand tour and the new top gear, I like Chris harris but I dunno its too dumbed down for the main stream, this is for car enthusiasts yet others can appreciate how well shot it is

Porsche 911, the company porsche was started, along with volkswagen, by Ferdinand Porsche. Ferdinand had trouble finding a company that would sponsor the production of the beetle but was eventually funded and sponsored by Adolf Hitler. Adolf is known for his acts of terror during the first world war and his hatred for the jewish. Could this be connected to the naming of the car "911"? (Reference to the 9/11 terrorist attacks) You havent thought of that have you? ofcourse no you only think about yourself you selfish prick.

The new 718 Cayman S PDK (turbo) is also more "raw" and "purist" as a result of the introduction of the turbo. What I will say is that with the variable turbo geometry (from the 911 Turbo) in the 718 S there is virtually no turbo lag as it rockets to 60 mph in 3.6 seconds. In back road rallies, it seamless runs up and down the gears (and the hills) with great authority.

Doesn’t this mean that the base models of the carrera will now be easier to add crazy power to? Since the engine is already built to handle forced induction, couldn’t one add larger turbos much easier and make real Turbo power at a much lower cost? Like you could have a RWD Porsche Carrera with the power of an AWD Carrera Turbo for a fraction of the cost of the MSRP of the Turbo by just buying a base model carrera with all the performance options you want, then send it out to a tuning company, have them bump up the power to 550 or so and then, bam, you have a discount Turbo, but with RWD fun and more turbo lag.

I want to have Randy’s life!! He is awesome; Supper talanted driver, all while providing incredible insight about what ever he is driving to a world class level!!! My buddy has met him a few times and he so as nice in person.

When you are off the throttle there is absolutely Air flow thru the engine and its exhaust… this guy is off his head thinking otherwise. The engine wouldn’t be able to rotate otherwise so that was ALL Nonsense.

Does this guy know who his audience is? We who spend our time watching these videos can probably can tell the difference between Gen 1 and Gen 2 991, so he pretty much told all of us to get a life! (Not saying he’s wrong, just annoying to be reminded of it).